New York Islanders 5 Players That Will Bounce Back in 2018-19

Nick Leddy

Even though I hate plus-minus as a statistic, that’s a story for another day, we have to bring it up when talking about Nick Leddy’s poor 2017-2018 season.

He was a career low -42 last year. Sure, it’s a flawed stat but it still jumps off the page as a red flag. It didn’t stop there, his CF percentage dropped to 46.9 as well. There’s no doubt that Nick Leddy had a bad year last season.

Leddy is a fast, puck handling defenseman he should have much better possession numbers than what he put up last year. Even though he finished with 42 points the season was a failure for Leddy.

Whether you believe that he was at fault or that he was a product of the system he played in, Nick Leddy still had a bad year in 2017-18.

Still, he’s the Islanders best all-around defenseman and should be helped immensely with the addition of Barry Trotz. The Isles head into the season with a near identical defensive core, which means Trotz and Lou Lamoriello must believe it was a system problem.

As we know, Doug Weight was an awful defensive coach. Trotz is not, in fact, that’s arguably a strength under Trotz. Leddy should benefit the most this season from the coaching change and he seems like a prime candidate to have a very strong season in 2018-2019.

At one point Nick Leddy was being linked to the Norris Trophy, although it was his own coach making such link. Leddy has all of the qualities to push himself into the conversation. But until now he hasn’t had a bench boss with the right tactics to help him out.

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There’s no doubt that Nick Leddy will have a bounce back year in 2018-19. There really isn’t anywhere else to go but up after a -42 +/- season.